Her royal ftock graft with ignoble plants,
And almost shoulder'd in the fwallowing gulph
Of dark forgetfulness, and deep oblivion.
Which to re-cure, we heartily follicit
Your gracious felf to take on you the charge
And kingly government of this your land.
Not as Protector, fteward, fubftitute,
Or lowly factor for another's gain;
But as fucceffively, from blood to blood,
Your right of birth, your Empiry, your own."
For this, conforted with the citizens
Your very worshipful and loving friends,
And by their vehement instigation,
In this juft fuit come I to move your Grace.
Glo. I cannot tell, if to depart in filence,
Or bitterly to speak in your reproof,
Best fitteth my degree, or your condition.
For not to answer, you might haply think
Tongue-ty'd ambition, not replying, yielded,
To bear the golden yoak of Sov'raignty,
Which fondly you would here impofe on me.
If to reprove you for this fuit of
yours,
So feafon'd with your faithful love to me,
Then on the other fide I check'd my friends.
Therefore to fpeak, and to avoid the first,
And then in fpeaking, not incur the last,
Definitively thus I answer you.
Your love deferves my thanks, but my
Unmeritable, fhuns your high request.
First, if all obftacles were cut away,⟫
And that my path were even to the crown,
As the ripe revenue and due of birth;
Yet fo much is my poverty of fpirit,
So mighty and fo many my defects,
That I would rather hide me from my greatness,
Being a bark to brook no mighty fea;
Than in my greatnefs covet to be hid,
And in the vapour of my glory fmother'd.
But God be thank'd, there is no need of me,
And much I need to help you, were there need:
The royal tree hath left us royal fruit,
Which mellow'd by the ftealing hours of time,
Will well become the feat of majesty,
And make us doubtless happy by his reign.
On him I lay what you would lay on me,
The right and fortune of his happy stars,
Which God defend that I fhould wring from him.
Buck. My lord, this argues confcience in your
But the refpects thereof are nice and trivial,
All circumstances well confidered.
You fay, that Edward is your brother's fon,
So fay we too, but not by Edward's wife:
For firft was he contract to lady Lucy,
Your mother lives a witnefs to that vow;
And afterward by fubftitute betroth'd
To Bona, fifter to the King of France.
These both put off, a poor petitioner,
A care-craz'd mother of a many children,
A beauty-waining, and diftreffed widow,
Ev'n in the afternoon of her beft days,
Made prize and purchase of his wanton eye,
Seduc'd the pitch and height of all his thoughts
To base declenfion and loath'd bigamy.
By her, in his unlawful bed, he got
This Edward, whom our manners call the Prince,
More bitterly could I expoftulate,
Save that for reverence of fome alive,
I give a fparing limit to my tongue.
Then, good my lord, take to your royal self
This proffer'd benefit of dignity:
If not to bless us and the land withal,
Yet to draw forth your noble ancestry
From the corruption of abufing time,
Unto a lineal, true, derived courfe.
Mayor. Do, good my lord, your citizens intreat
Buck. Refuse not, mighty lord, this proffer'd
Catef. O make them joyful, grant their lawful fuit.
Glo. Alas, why would you heap these cares on me?
I am unfit for state and majesty.
I do beseech you take it not amifs,
I cannot, nor I will not yield to you.
Buck. If you refuse it, as in love and zeal,
Loth to depofe the child your brother's fon,"
(As well we know your tenderness of heart,
And gentle, kind, effeminate remorfe,
Which we have noted in you to your kindred,
And equally indeed to all eftates)
Yet know, where you accept our fuit or no,
Your brother's fon fhall never reign our King,
But we will plant fome other in the throne,
To the difgrace and down-fall of your house:
And in this refolution here we leave you.
Come citizens, we will intreat no more.
Catef. Call them again, fweet Prince, accept their
If you deny them, all the land will rue it.
Glo. Will you inforce me to a world of cares?
Call them again, I am not made of stone,
But penetrable to your kind entreaties,
Albeit against my confcience and my foul.
Re-enter Buckingham and the reft.
Coufin of Buckingham, and fage, grave men,
Since you will buckle fortune on my back
To bear her burthen, whether I will or no,
I must have patience to endure the load.
But if black fcandal, or foul-fac'd reproach
Attend the fequel of your impofition,
Your meer enforcement fhall acquittance me
From all the impure blots and stains thereof.
For God doth know, and you may partly fee,
How far I am from the defire of this.
Mayor. God bless your grace, we fee it, and will fay it.
Glo. In faying fo, you fhall but fay the truth. Buck. Then I falute you with this royal title, Long live King Richard, England's worthy King. All. Amen.
Buck. To-morrow may it please you to be
Glo. Ev'n when you pleafe, for you will have it fo.)
Buck. To-morrow then we will attend your Grace,
And so most joyfully we take our leave.
Glo. Come, let us to our holy work again. Farewel my coufin, farewel gentle friends.
Enter the Queen, Anne Dutchess of Gloucester, the Dutchess of York, and Marquefs of Dorfet.
HO meets us here my neice Planta
Led in the hand of her kind aunt of
Now, for my life, fhe's wandring to
the Tower,
On pure heart's love, to greet the tender Prince.
Daughter, well met.
Anne. God give your Graces both
A happy and a joyful time of day.
Queen. Sifter, well met
Anne. No farther than the Tower, and as I guess,
Upon the like devotion as your felves,
To gratulate the gentle Princes there.
Queen. Kind fifter thanks, we'll enter all together.
And in good time here the Lieutenant comes.
Mafter Lieutenant, pray you, by your leave,
How doth the Prince, and my young fon of York?
Lieu. Right well, dear madam; by your patience,
I may not fuffer you to vifit them;
The King hath frictly charg'd the contrary.
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